United Nations Women Programme’s Specialist, Peter Mancha, has said that the reconsideration of the gender bills would yield the much-desired development in Nigeria.
Mancha said disposing of the bill was not in the interest of the country, adding that Rwanda has proven as a worthy example where equal opportunity works.
He made this disclosure on Wednesday at the United Nations Women programme on peace and security in Nigeria, funded by the Norwegian Embassy.
The Specialist revealed that what was required would be to refocus the direction of lawmakers to see the essence of the bills.
He said, “The five gender bills thrown out by the National Assembly are actually not a good development. The bill will bring development to both men and women. The inclusive trend is when you want to see meaningful development as we see in Rwanda. So throwing that bill is not in the interest of development.
“We need to go to the drawing board to see how these legislators can have a different perspective in terms of knowing how important the bills are in mitigating or reducing gender parity that exists in Nigeria.”
Commenting on the influence of society on what transpired in the National Assembly, the Programme’s Specialist stressed that it was a reflection of what is obtainable describing the patriarchal setting.
Macha added, “We need to start changing the mindset of our children who will be leaders for the male child to see the female child as an equal partner and they will grow up to live in it but when you grow in a society where you are meant to believe the female child is inferior to you, it becomes a challenge. So, there should be more awareness of gender parity for people to know that it brings development.
Also speaking, a national consultant for UN women, Bukola Adelehin, said the second phase of the organisation would help the Women Affairs ministry in strengthening its State Action Plan.
“We will be doing alot of legislative capacity building. Gombe State is relatively peaceful and stable but we know that even when there is peace, we need to consolidate it by watering the plant of peace,” she said.
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